Bioscience and pharmaceutical Chemicals Economic Development Government Insider Only New Castle County News Nonprofits & Philanthropy Public Companies Technology & IT

As Incyte exits, Innovation Space eyes future

Jacob Owens September 23, 2021

WILMINGTON – For the first time in much of its four-year history, the public-private business incubator Delaware Innovation Space will be able to manage the future of nearly half of its space. Launched in 2017 as a partnership between the state of Delaware, the University of Delaware and DuPont, some 130,000 square feet of the

Want to Read More?

Paid DBT subscribers get unlimited access to all Insider content and much more. Learn more in our Insider FAQ.

Become an Insider Now

Already an Insider? Log In.

Tags:

🔒 Thompson Island Brewing and Swell Joe partner for Cosmic Cuppa

🔒 Morris James to support Delaware State University Law Studies students

Innovation Space lands promising Australian biotech firm

Jacob Owens October 18, 2022

New conference to spotlight life sciences in Delaware

Jacob Owens March 15, 2023

NiKang licenses drug in China for $15M

Jacob Owens May 3, 2022

Carbon Reform lands $3M seed round

Jacob Owens November 30, 2022

Premier Digital Partners

[caption id="attachment_215488" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

The Delaware Innovation Space will soon have more than 60,000 square feet of space to lease out to new startups. | PHOTO COURTESY OF DISI[/caption] WILMINGTON – For the first time in much of its four-year history, the public-private business incubator Delaware Innovation Space will be able to manage the future of nearly half of its space. Launched in 2017 as a partnership between the state of Delaware, the University of Delaware and DuPont, some 130,000 square feet of the DuPont Experimental Station off Powder Mill Road in Alapocas was designated under the Innovation Space as leasable to growing startup companies focused on technology or the life sciences. [caption id="attachment_214617" align="alignright" width="300"]

Incyte will soon begin moving its Innovation Space-based staff to its headquarters campus, completing the move by April. | DBT PHOTO BY MIKE ROCHELEAU[/caption] One of the earliest tenants of the Innovation Space though was Incyte, the pharmaceutical maker that, albeit still growing, was a publicly traded, billion-dollar company with a headquarter campus less than 2 miles away. As it completes a third building on its Augustine Cut-Off campus by early next year, it plans to leave 50,000 square feet of labs at the Innovation Space and move staff to its own facilities, an Incyte spokeswoman told Delaware Business Times. [caption id="attachment_215479" align="alignleft" width="278"]

Bill Provine | PHOTO COURTESY OF ADESIS[/caption] That move, combined with the recent Innovation Space “graduation” of the contract chemistry research, development and manufacturing firm Adesis to other Experimental Station lab space, will free up a total of 62,500 square feet for new startups, said Bill Provine, CEO of the Innovation Space. “The economic impact that we could have if all we ever did was bring people into our building and let them live forever would be about 300 jobs, but we have aspirations for thousands and thousands of jobs,” he said. “We haven't had this kind of opportunity since we opened.” This moment is matched by the example the Innovation Space can put forward, with clients like Prelude Therapeutics going public and becoming valued at more than a billion dollars, Provine said. All told, Innovation Space tenants have raised $720 million in seed funding, he added. Although Provine isn’t sure how that huge Incyte block of 50,000 square feet might be divided up moving forward, he doesn’t prefer the entire chunk to return to one user again. He noted that because the Innovation Space endeavors to grow and graduate companies out into the market, he doesn’t like to see tenancy above 80%, although right now it’s above 90%. “I'm looking for the strongest growing companies to create jobs and create an impact in the market with great science. We’ll morph our offering to support that,” he said. Although much has been made of Delaware’s lack of available lab space in recent years, Provine said he views the need for venture capital as the state’s most pressing need. Lab space is costly to build, but promising companies with the right investors build new sites every year across the country, he said. Provine said that he’d like the Innovation Space to be part of the effort to grow venture capital resources that are badly needed in the state. The nonprofit Innovation Space’s First Fund has been able to invest more than $250,000 in three companies so far, and Provine would like to see that fund grow considerably, but other investors are needed to help scale research and production at these promising firms – many of which simply suffer from a lack of a big enough spotlight. He said that marketing and professional pitches will continue to go farther afield from Delaware to raise the regional profile of the Innovation Space, which in turn could create more interest from investors looking for growth potential. “We continue to spread our wings to attract people from all over the country,” Provine said, noting tenants have come from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and even California. “In some ways we're still teaching people about what we do and what we have available.”

As Incyte exits, Innovation Space eyes future

Want to Read More?

You Might also Like

Leave a Comment Cancel Comment

Premier Digital Partners

Newsletter Signup

Related Stories

ABOUT

NEWS INDUSTRY

SUBSCRIBE

FOLLOW US

Premier Digital Partners

Type to search

As Incyte exits, Innovation Space eyes future

Share

Want to Read More?

You Might also Like

Leave a Comment Cancel Comment

Premier Digital Partners

Newsletter Signup

Related Stories

ABOUT

NEWS INDUSTRY

SUBSCRIBE

FOLLOW US

Premier Digital Partners